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25 March 2018

The latest LEGO® Ideas set 21314 TRON: Legacy is available from March 31, 2018 priced £29.99/ US$34.99/ 34.99€. It depicts the iconic race between two light cycles and is based on the 2010 film which is a sequel to the technically ambitious 1982 original.

The original submission, by fans BrickBrosUK from Devon, proposed one light cycle and minifigure. Even though this has been expanded to include another light cycle and two further minifigures, it's still a small set at just 230 pieces. And of course, you are building the same vehicle twice. Thankfully it's an ingenious build; clever in its compactness and some interesting connections. But as ever, we are here to discuss the parts!

18 March 2018

We took a box of new LEGO® pieces to a meet up of London AFOLs for some fast-paced building adventures. London AFOLs meet in a pub every second Monday of the month, and new and international visitors are always welcome. Check out the group on meetup.com/LondonAFOLs.

Last time we shared some of the real-world objects the builders made; today it's the abstract builds. People had just 20 minutes to create something using some new LEGO parts, some elements that have recently come in new colours, and London AFOLs' general brick stock.

Love this simple usage of Brick 1X1X1 2/3 W/ Vert Knobs in Bright Red [TLG]/Red [BL] (Element ID 6187620|Design ID 32952) to create a spiral. Those 1x4 tiles are Bright Green (6195267|2431); these are back again having briefly appeared in 2012/13. They come in the exclusive set 21037 LEGO House which also introduces 1x1 tiles in this colour!

13 March 2018

Elspeth De Montes has her hands on a large 2017 LEGO® set but she isn't going to build it! She simply must alert you to its parts and the fantastic quantities they come in.

It is time for another one of my parts reviews, so I hope you have your sea-legs ready as we set sail and look at 21136 The Ocean Monument. This set was an August 2017 release for the LEGO® Minecraft theme containing 1,122 elements including two minifigures, and retails at £119.99 / $119.99 / 119.99€ (currently cheaper at Amazon UK and some cheaper still at BrickLink).

Bein' Green

Sand Green is a rather sought-after colour, in part due to the famous retired Modular 10185 Green Grocer and also as it made frequent appearances in the Harry Potter theme. I thought it might be good to analyse Ocean Monument as a ‘green parts pack’ as Sand Green accounts for approximately 25% of the elements, with Earth Green [TLG]/Dark Green [BL] another 25%. That’s a LOT of green for a set with over 1000 parts.

7 March 2018

It's all over! 54 builders submitted 79 entries that imagined how the newly returned LEGO® colour called teal could be killed off again, given that Mark Stafford's last attempt in 2006 clearly failed. Here are all the entries in one image:

Which of course means we had to judge winners; always a painful task but especially difficult when the entries all excelled in different ways - their originality, humour, clever ideas and of course nice piece usage. Thank you so much to everyone that entered, creating so many smiles for us and New Elementary readers. Now read on to find out who was picked for the prizes...

5 March 2018

Today we present the final entries we received in our contest where we asked you to imagine how LEGO® designer and AFOL Mark Stafford might kill off Teal again, now that this colour is back in the LEGO palette once more. Missed the previous entries? See them here.

4 March 2018

For a bit of fun, we asked you to imagine how Teal might be "killed" again, now that this colour is back in the LEGO palette once more. We received 79 fun entries and are publishing a few every day, in the order they were received, and reveal the winners next week. Missed the previous entries? See them here.

The extremes people will go to...

By Tom (Inthert)

"I'm not crazy, you're crazy!!! Its reappearance in the Downtown Diner only proves my theory! Discontinuing teal wasn't enough! It must be removed from the archives to destroy it once and for all!"
- Extract from 'My Life as a Lego Conspiracy Theorist'.

3 March 2018

We asked you to imagine how LEGO® designer and AFOL Mark Stafford might kill off Teal again, now that this colour is back in the LEGO palette once more. We received 79 entries and are publishing a few every day, in the order they were received, and reveal the winners in just a few days' time. Missed the previous entries? See them here.

Killing the reputation

By Igor Ruzajev

I think we can all agree that casually phasing out a Lego colour is no way to go and is extremely unethical. What must be done is the colour's reputation has to be destroyed first, after which people themselves may demand to let go of the dreaded shade.

It just so happens that a maniacal angel dressed in Teal and allowed to run amok happens to be a great solution to the problem. Just make sure you add a dash of Purple (preferably of the firearm kind), and you're as good as done! Enjoy the show!

2 March 2018

We asked you to imagine how LEGO® designer and AFOL Mark Stafford might kill off Teal again, now that this colour is back in the LEGO palette once more. We received 79 entries and are publishing a few every day, in the order they were received, and we reveal the winners next week. Missed the previous entries? See them here.

Teal: Into the Phantom Zone

By Daniele Alessandro Combatti

The year is 2024.

LEGO's continuous production of Teal mysteriously caused giving sentience to the newly-reintroduced colour; all bricks combined to form a humanoid, leaving a trail of destruction at the Danish HQ.

The higher-ups at the company tasked Mark Stafford himself to get rid of the monster, while still following their “no-weapons” policy, so there was only one tool suitable for the job: The Phantom Zone Projector. And a squad of purple paintballers for safety.

1 March 2018

Now for the third collection of LEGO® models built by New Elementary readers (see the first here) where we asked you to imagine how LEGO designer and AFOL Mark Stafford might kill off this colour, now it is back in the LEGO palette once more. We reveal the judges' choices next week - but which do you like? Comment below!

Sweeping teal under the rug

By Simon Gebraad

With the help of Ryo, Mark Stafford sweaps teal under the rug. Ryo was very happy he could keep his hear, so helping Mark was no problem.